Amorphous metal and metal oxide films are pervasive in myriad applications [e.g., transistors (1, 2), flexible electronics (3)], including schemes that involve the electrocatalytic oxidation of water into clean hydrogen fuels. Indeed, there is a growing body of evidence showing that amorphous metal oxides mediate the oxygen evolution reaction (OER; Eq. 1) (4-8) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER; Eq. 2) (9, 10) more efficiently than crystalline phases of the same compositions.2H2O(l)→4e−+4H+(aq)+O2(g)   (1)2H+(aq)+2e−→H2(g)   (2)
These findings are particularly important in the context of efficiently storing electricity produced from intermittent and variable renewable energy sources (e.g., sunlight, wind) as high density fuels (e.g., hydrogen) (11, 12).
The majority of amorphous metal oxide films reported in the literature are formed by electrodeposition (4-7), sputtering (13), thermal decomposition (3, 14), or ultra-violet-light-driven decomposition (8) of metal precursors.
Films prepared by these methods can demonstrate state-of-the-art electrocatalytic OER activities (15-20), the syntheses are not necessarily amenable to scalable manufacture due so sensitivities to metal work functions, reaction media, or prohibitively expensive precursors.
Consequently, accessing amorphous compositions of many metal oxides for commercial applications is not trivial, particularly when complex metal compositions are desired (3, 8).
The isolation of amorphous metals is substantially more challenging, as single-element metallic films typically require sophisticated protocols (21).
There is therefore a need for processes for the formation of amorphous metal-containing films under moderate conditions.